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Fort Frye falls to Ridgewood in sectional final

Fort Frye’s Dawson Layton (1) catches a popup as teammate Jackson Lowe (31) looks on during a high school baseball sectional final game against Ridgewood Thursday in Beverly. Ridgewood won, 7-2. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

BEVERLY — Ridgewood starting pitcher Chase Booth tossed five outstanding innings and helped his own cause with a two-run home run as the visiting Generals claimed the Division III sectional championship with a 7-2 win Thursday evening over the Fort Frye Cadets.

Booth allowed just two hits and two runs over five innings of work after staking his team to an early 2-0 lead with a long homer over the left field fence in the first inning.

The Cadets tied things up in the bottom of the second inning only to watch Ridgewood put a four spot on the board in the top of the fourth to break things open.

Fort Frye stating pitcher Shawn Miller hit Ridgewood’s Gabe Tingle with a pitch with one out in the top of the first and Booth followed with a long blast well over the fence in left field to get the Generals on the board.

The Cadets evened things up in the last of the second inning and missed a pretty good opportunity for a big inning.

Miller walked to begin the inning and junior Ethan Duskey followed by lacing an opposite-field double to the gap in left-center to put two runners in scoring position for the home team.

Center fielder Owen Brown worked Booth for a walk to load the bases with nobody out and the Cadets appeared to be in business.

Jackson Lowe plated the first Cadet run by grounding into a fielders choice before the Generals came up with a great defensive play to end the inning.

Fort Frye’s Clayton Miller hit a grounder right at Ridgewood’s Kaulen Smith at first base.

Smith stepped on the bag at first and fired a strike to second where the Generals tagged out Lowe to end the inning.

The Cadets did catch a bit of a break when the home plate umpire ruled that Duskey crossed the plate before Lowe was tagged out at second allowing his run to count and knotting the score at 2-2.

Fort Frye retired the Generals in order in the third and failed to take advantage of a brief bout with wildness by Booth as they stranded a pair of base runners in the bottom of the third who both reached base via the walk.

Ridgewood took the lead back with a bang to open the top of the fourth when senior Kolby Masloski led off the inning with a towering home run just over the fence in left for a 3-2 lead.

Cadet head coach Trey Engle elected to replace Miller on the mound with Dawson Layton and it looked like they might escape the inning without any further damage when the junior righty retired two of the first three hitters he faced.

With one out Andy Troyer collected the second of what would be three base hits for him in the game and one out later second baseman Zander Stroup brought him in with a clutch two-out single to center.

Lead-off man Trent Warden was hit by a pitch and the next three General batters reached base via the walk to force in two more runs and increase their lead to 6-2.

Jackson Lowe came on in relief to get the final out for the Fort to keep the game from getting completely out of hand.

Booth seemed to only get stronger the longer he went as he retired the Cadets in order in the fourth and set down the first two hitters in the fifth before the Cadets put together a two-out threat.

Layton legged out a perfectly-placed bunt down the third base line and senior Cameron Tennant followed with a rocket shot to left-center field that appeared to be heading in to the gap for extra bases but General left -fielder Alex Stroup made the play of the game when he made an outstanding running catch to end the inning.

“They are a really well coached baseball team and they made a lot of baseball plays when they needed to,” said Engle. “They are just a very tough, gritty team and they know how to play baseball.”

After getting the final out in the fourth, Lowe did an outstanding job in relief for the Cadets as he allowed only a seventh inning insurance run in three and a third innings of work to keep Fort Frye’s hopes alive.

“Jackson did a great job and kept us in the ball game,” said Engle of Lowe. “That was definitely the best game that he has pitched and that was fun to watch.”

Ridgewood head coach Chad Lahna turned things over on the mound to Trent Warden for the final two innings and all he did was retire six of the seven hitters he faced including striking out the side in the bottom of the seventh to protect the lead and secure the sectional crown.

The win improved the Generals season mark to 13-10-1 and set them up to take on Martins Ferry on Monday at a site and time to be determined for the District semi-final.

The loss spelled elimination for the Cadets after a 14-7 season.

The game also marked the final one for a pair of Cadet seniors in Tennant and catcher Ian Ellis.

“They both just continued to get better and better and better until this year they became team leaders,” said Engle of his senior duo. “Cam had a helluva a year on the mound and at the plate and Ian led us in every offensive category so they did everything that we asked them to do and we couldn’t be more proud of them.”

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